


Mistletoe tradition

by Heloflor



Category: Milo Murphy's Law
Genre: Established Relationship, Implied/Referenced Character Death, Implied/Referenced Homophobia, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-03-11
Updated: 2021-03-11
Packaged: 2021-03-17 17:01:42
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,231
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29969523
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Heloflor/pseuds/Heloflor
Summary: December is a time of sharing, of fun, of celebrating numerous holidays and traditions from all sorts of cultures. And one of these traditions is the perfect way to show affection to someone special, so long as one’s partner forgets about what the past might think of the two of them.
Relationships: Balthazar Cavendish/Vinnie Dakota
Comments: 2
Kudos: 10





	Mistletoe tradition

**Author's Note:**

> Yes I know it’s way past december now but for some reason this idea came to mind after making headcanons with “young adult/20s-30s” Dakota having a collection room; and I don’t want to wait 10 months before posting it. The first half of this fic could also serve as some kind of preview for something longer that I’m working on, though the first chapter won’t come out before a few weeks because I have a lot of fics from previous fandoms that I’ve written on paper and need to “digitize” and post.  
> In the first half of the fic, Cavendish and Dakota are in their younger version (“First Impressions”) while the second half takes place after they get banned from time travel (so I guess a year after season 2 if we follow the show’s chronology). And, as usual, the two are already in a relationship. Oh yeah, and it’s mostly fluff for once. Though, I don’t know if there’s a trigger warning or something for that but know that the characters talk about homophobia. Anyways, enjoy !

It was that time of the year again. The leaves were done falling, snow started to be expected and, everywhere, houses and malls started to be filled with Christmas decorations. December finally arrived.

Vinnie was in his memory room, using having the week-end off to dust off the shelves. He’d been gone for two weeks due to his last mission and had some catching up to do if he wanted the place clean and his souvenirs maintained. At least that last mission brought him a new artifact : a book of all the species that were identified in the Europe of the 17th century. In front of the book was resting a picture of him sitting at an old desk in old-fashioned clothes, asleep on the open book, the room slightly illuminated by a single candle.

Vinnie smiled at the picture. He’d been pleasantly surprised when he woke up and found out that Balthazar had taken a picture for him that night. Vinnie could also remember the next morning, waking up with the book neatly put next to his face and glasses, away from any possible drool that was itself taken care of by a tissue put under his head, while a blanket was resting on his back and the candle had been long ago put out. When he had woken up, his first instinct was to look for his partner and see if he was awake. Upon seeing the blonde sleep, he had decided to try and make breakfast ready, wishing to give Balth a morning that was as pleasant as the night Vinnie received from him.

Vinnie shook his head as he tried to get back to the present, his smile never faltering. He and Balth had been in a serious relationship for almost two years now; and for the past weeks, the blonde had moved in Vinnie’s apartment. Of course, things weren’t always easy, especially with how badly his free spirit tended to clash with Balth’s stubbornness. But most often than not, the two saw eye to eye and started to make more and more memories together that made every argument worthwhile.

As he left the room and looked at the streets from the window, his mind still full of thoughts about his boyfriend, an idea came to mind. He went to his bedroom, fumbling for a bit with a box full of Christmas decorations that he took out today until he found what he was looking for. It was an old mistletoe that he used in the past to please a few flings. It wasn’t in the best condition but it would do for today.

Vinnie went back to the living room, tied the leaf to a string with a magnet on its end, and used one of his flying contraptions to hoist it up right above his front door. For a moment, he thought that he had enough time to make it a surprise. But unfortunately, before he could place the leaf right, the door opened, revealing Balth who stopped at the sight of his boyfriend.

“Vinnie, what are you doing ?”, the blonde asked, eyes on the robot hovering above him.

“Hi babe. I’m hanging a mistletoe.”, he nonchalantly replied.

“I can see that.”, Balth crossed his arms, clearly waiting for more information.

“I just thought we could have some seasonal fun, you know ? Have something that’s us.”, as he kept talking, Vinnie continued to maneuver the drone. Once he got it to a satisfying height, he magnetized the string to the wall, keeping the leaf hanging where he wanted it.

“You want to make a game out of kissing under the mistletoe ?”, the blonde was still looking at the leaf despite his tone and raised eyebrow being targeted at the smaller man. Vinnie smirked, joining his boyfriend on the doorway.

“Well yeah. We’re almost never home, and when we’re on mission you always want to keep our relationship a secret s-“

“You know we _have_ to keep our relationship-“

“Yeah yeah, I know. I know and understand that most people would kill us for it.”, Vinnie interrupted back, almost rolling his eyes. “So that’s why I think that, when we’re home, we could make up for the lost time ! From today and until Christmas, we’ll have to kiss every time we cross the door together.”, he explained. “This means everytime we come back from missions _and_ when we go out.”, Vinnie titled his head towards the leaf above them. “So what do you say ?”

Balth seemed to consider it for a moment before finally smiling, his gaze finally back on his boyfriend.

“Yes. I suppose we can do something like that.”

“Great ! Sooo, if we’re going to start today…”, Vinnie removed his glasses, wiggling his eyebrows while hoping that Balth would quickly get the message because his eyes were already starting to hurt from the light. Lucky for him, the blonde immediately rolled his eyes with a smile and cupped his boyfriend’s cheek, pulling him closer and kissing him. When the brit pulled away, Vinnie barely let him time to catch his breath before launching himself at his face again.

“This is going to be a long month, isn’t it .”, Balth asked after pushing his boyfriend away. Despite his annoyed tone, the blonde hadn’t stopped smiling. Vinnie couldn’t help but chuckle happily before kissing the taller man again.

This was going to be a _great_ month.

* * *

It was a cold day in Danville despite the sun shining. It was ten days before Christmas and the town was swarming in activity between those who were still working and those who were looking for their holidays decorations and Christmas presents. Vinnie was in his “apartment”, humming some cheesy Christmas song as he was dealing with the leaf in his hands and a strand of string. He had bought the mistletoe a few minutes earlier, after Balth had left to get them takeout at Vinnie’s request.

After tying the leaf, the short man went to take all the books they had, making himself a stool out of it. At first, he had thought of using his office chair. But seeing how unstable it would be, along with how close to the ceiling he would end up, he decided that books would suffice. Besides, he didn’t need that big of a lift.

As he put the books down, he made sure one of his was at the bottom, followed by Balth’s books and then his zoology encyclopedia. He then opened the door to give himself some leverage, lifted himself and started working on hanging the leaf. Lucky for him, the wall was imperfect enough that he could make it work. He just needed to put the string there and then…

“Dakota.”, Vinnie was taken by surprise as he heard the Brit’s voice from outside and felt himself lose balance. “Honestly I don’t understand why you wa-“, whatever Balth was saying, Vinnie lost track of it as his foot stood on nothing and he fell, landing on the ground with a yelp and a small thud. “Dakota ?”

Vinnie heard Balth’s footsteps quicken and, when he recovered from his fall, his husband was standing at the entrance, his expression filled with worry.

“I’m fine, I’m fine.”, the shorter man reassured while standing back up. For an instant, relief flashed through Balth’s eyes, only to go back to a stern frown in an instant.

“Just what are you doing ?”, he criticized. “Are those my books ?”

“Don’t worry, I didn’t step on them. And I’m hanging the mistletoe.”, Vinnie replied, showing him the leaf. Balth immediately softened.

“…Oh.”

“Yeah. I know I usually put it the first day of December, but since we’re here everyday, I thought it’d be a good compromise.”, Balth didn’t reply, simply moving to put the bag of food on Vinnie’s desk. Though, as Balth crossed him, the shorter man noticed the Brit’s worried frown. “Is something wrong ?”

“Well I…”, Balth turned back towards his husband after a moment of consideration. “About this tradition of yours…I don’t think we should do it this year.”

“…Why not ?”

“Because it’s…it’s not safe. We’re not safe here.”

Vinnie had to stop himself from groaning in frustration.

“Cavendish, we’re in the 21th century _and_ in America. Nobody is going to try and kill us for our relationship.”

“Just because nobody tried yet doesn’t mean they never will.”, Balth argued. “There are still people in this country who believe that men like me shouldn’t exist. Or that men like you are broken. Besides, the only reason why we never got attacked is because we’re _hiding_ our relationship.”

“Yeah, in public. And we’ll continue to be careful in public.”, Vinnie replied with a comforting tone, trying his best not to get too annoyed. He’d always hated how much precaution Balth wanted to put on their relationship. It has always been a source of frustration for him to have to hide his liking of men after growing up at a time when these kinds of issues didn’t exist anymore. “But we’re in private right now. Nobody’s going to waltz in there.”

“We could have neighbors.”

“In this place ? It sucks even as an office ! And we have a _door_.”

“Dakot- !”, Balth sighed. “ _Vinnie_ , I’m just trying to look out for you !”, he looked away, his arms crossed, more in a self-embrace than in annoyance. “I could never forgive myself if anything happens to you because of me.”, it almost sounded like a whisper.

This time, Vinnie couldn’t hold his groan.

“Yeah, because _I’m_ the one who needs saving. Come on Cav ! It’s not like _I_ was the one who got assassinated by some crazy teen !”

“E-excuse me ?!”, Balth’s confusion was all too apparent.

“1252. That one ‘spying on the Lord’ mission back when we barely started dating.”, Vinnie half-explained half-deadpanned. “I flirted way too openly on the first day and some guy attacked us at night and killed you while I was away. I got ambushed and almost died from his attack when I came back.”, the taller man looked at him in shock, as if he only now considered the possibility, which only fueled Vinnie up. All these deaths were a topic he tended to avoid for a reason. “Why do you think I stopped flirting during missions ?!”, Balth just stood there, clearly still trying to process this information. This made Vinnie calm down a bit and he decided to go back on topic, if only to make Balth forget about the whole ‘dying all the time’ situation.

“Look, Balth.”, he said after taking a deep breath. “All I want is to share a small tradition we’ve had for years. Ever since we’ve been there, you’ve been pulling back from everything that has to do with us ! But we’re _safe_ here. Nobody lives next door and all the other people working here barely know us. Nobody’s going to attack us. I- I wouldn’t risk it again anyways.”

“…I don’t know, Vinnie.”, he seemed much more hesitant than before, which Vinnie took as a sign of progress. “This is something we’re supposed to do at home.”

“This _is_ home, Balth. I don’t like it any more than you do, but it’s our home now.”, Vinnie approached his husband, who was still standing cross-armed while clearly avoiding Vinnie’s eyes. Gently, the smaller man nudged him. “Come on Cav. Balth. Honey.”

“Oh alright, fine !”, Balth finally said, not without sounding unhappy about it. “We can keep this tradition of yours. But only if we do it with the door closed and make it quick.”

“Door closed, quick kiss. Got it.”, Vinnie was more than happy to reply. He’d get what he can get. Quickly, he went back to the books and started piling them up again.

“Allow me.”, Balth almost sighed his words as he took the mistletoe, only using a few of the books already piled up to lift himself and hang the leaf. Vinnie used that time to collect the rest of the books and put them aside. He’ll have to sort them out later.

With the books taken care of, the smaller man went back to his husband, waiting as he finished his task. When Balth was done he turned around, quickly caught sight of his partner smiling next to him and sighed.

“Wouldn’t you rather eat before it gets cold ?”, he tried.

“Hey, don’t try to bribe me with food.”, Vinnie jokingly reprimanded.

“Well it sometimes work.”, the taller man replied. There was a hint of amusement in his voice.

“And it won’t this time.”, Vinnie teased back. He pulled his glasses up and Balth pulled him closed to kiss him. Like the Brit said, the kiss was barely a second and, once he pulled away, Balth immediately went to sort the books. Vinnie quickly took the hint.

“Alright, let’s eat now.”, he said as he rushed to his desk while Balth was finishing with the books. Vinnie had to admit, he was disappointed that he had to compromise so much to keep this tradition. But he knew that Balth wouldn’t budge. And for now, he didn’t expect him to.

Maybe one day, he’ll be able to convince his husband that not every time period before 2060 wanted him dead for who he was. But for now, he’ll just have to enjoy what life gave him.

That’s what he always did anyways.

**Author's Note:**

> Small bonus headcanons :  
> \- “20s-30s” Dakota wanted to get tons of decorations for his house and Cavendish had to force him not to buy half the store. Cavendish doesn’t want a place that people would stop to stare at or where he could get bothered by all the decorations.  
> \- For the first Christmas after the events of season 2, Dakota got Cavendish a customed trophy with the words “Savior of the World” written on it. Cavendish absolutely adores it.


End file.
